Hog Futures Ty Storey

Self-starting QB getting ahead of game

Quarterback Ty Storey speaks to members of the media Monday, Dec. 22, 2014, during a press conference ahead of the Razorbacks' Dec. 29 bowl game with Texas in Houston.
Quarterback Ty Storey speaks to members of the media Monday, Dec. 22, 2014, during a press conference ahead of the Razorbacks' Dec. 29 bowl game with Texas in Houston.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Ty Storey's ascension from lackluster water boy to standout quarterback was a quick one, fueled by self-motivation of an extreme nature.

"He's been around football his whole life," said his father, Shane, the head coach at Charleston High School for 15 years and now the Class 3A school's athletic director. "He tried to be my water boy, but he was always over there playing football with the other kids. I couldn't get much work out of him unless he had a football in his hands."

Ty Storey glance

CLASS Freshman

POSITION Quarterback

HEIGHT/WEIGHT 6-3, 211 pounds

AGE 19 (birthday May 29, 1996)

HOMETOWN Charleston

HIGH SCHOOL Charleston

NOTEWORTHY Early enrollee who was the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s All-Arkansas Preps Offensive Player of the Year in 2014. … Earned Gatorade Arkansas football player of the year honors in back-to-back seasons after leading Charleston to Class 3A championships in 2013 and 2014. … Named MVP of the Class 3A championship game as a junior and senior. … Played linebacker on Charleston’s state championship team of 2011. … A consensus four-star prospect by Scout, Rivals, ESPN and 247Sports. … Finished his high school career with 29 consecutive victories and had 12,856 passing yards, the third-highest total in Arkansas high school history. … Ranked No. 3 player in Arkansas and No. 165 nationally by Rivals; No. 3 in Arkansas and No. 236 nationally by 247Sports, No. 4 in Arkansas and No. 16 quarterback in the country by Scout, No. 7 in Arkansas and the No. 19 pocket passer in the country by ESPN. … Earned all-state honors in baseball and basketball. … Chose Arkansas early over offers from Alabama, Auburn, Louisville and others.

Having the football in Ty Storey's hands paid off big for Charleston, which won its final 29 games with him at quarterback, including back-to-back Class 3A championships in 2013-14. Now the Arkansas Razorbacks are finding out the story behind Storey.

A longtime Arkansas commitment who has been attending camps in Fayetteville since the fourth grade, Storey planned well in advance for early enrollment and went through a handful of bowl practices and all of spring drills with the Razorbacks.

"I felt like I got better every day in the spring, and that was my goal," Storey said. "I knew going in I wasn't going to be a world beater going out there competing with those guys. But I feel like we all got better, all the freshmen. ...Eventually it just felt like a normal football practice for us."

Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema and his staff have noted Storey's maturity and drive to succeed.

"Ty, whether it's football, baseball, basketball, whatever, is just a champion," Bielema said.

Storey, a 6-3, 211-pounder who displayed a college-like frame and mind-set in the spring, earned all-state honors in all three sports, a sign of his passion for competition.

"He's very dedicated to being as successful as he can," Shane Storey said. "Some people might say, 'Oh, God, you pushed that kid maybe like Tiger Woods' dad,' but that's not true. He's pushed himself.

"I didn't ever have to tell him to go out there and throw or go lift or go work out. ... He's always been mature for his age. He's always been goal-driven and very level-headed."

Storey will enter his first fall camp fourth on the depth chart behind senior Brandon Allen, redshirt sophomore Austin Allen and redshirt freshman Rafe Peavey.

First-year offensive coordinator Dan Enos said an ideal scenario would be for Storey to redshirt this fall.

"I think when you have a guy like Brandon Allen as your starter, and then Austin Allen has played some and you have Rafe Peavy who has redshirted, redshirting for Ty would be in his best interests and something we'd like to do," Enos said.

Storey said he has to prepare as if his plan for 2015 has no script yet.

"I know I've been picking Brandon's brain a lot about how he preps for games, what he's doing this summer to get ready, all the film he watches, where to go find all that stuff," Storey said. "He's helping me so much.

"That's just kind of the mentality we've all taken, even if we don't know what's going to happen this fall. No one knows if they're going to play or not for sure, so we're just going to to into every day trying to earn that spot."

Shane Storey said his son is in a good place, not starting his college career with pressure.

"I think everybody in the state of Arkansas knows that Brandon Allen is going to be the quarterback this year, as well he should be," he said. "He had a great spring and is going to have an outstanding year. So Ty can sit back and really work on his game, trying to get stronger, which he has."

Storey came to campus with a serious approach.

"I had to constantly remind myself that Ty should be in high school, because he's very mature," Enos said. "He's got a great mentality, a great mind-set. He really attacks things.

"He had a good spring, and I think going through the spring, now being able to sit back and digest what he did, and then having the summer to continue to work on it, we'll see a much-improved Ty when fall camp starts, and we'll go from there."

Storey operated almost exclusively in a Spread offense from a Shotgun snap at Charleston. His first few days calling plays in the huddle and taking snaps from under center led to some bungles, but he quickly advanced.

"Obviously there's a learning curve, especially for an early enrollee freshman," Brandon Allen said of Storey. "I thought he handled it really well. He came in and performed well.

"The biggest thing I noticed with him was there was not that nervous freshman factor. He came in and called plays in the huddle, to take him out of the no-huddle. Especially as a freshman, you come in and have older guys in your huddle, it's intimidating to step in and take control, but I thought he did a good job with that. I thought he was almost like an experienced freshman when he got here."

Storey and fellow freshman Will Gragg have discussed how they hope this year's freshman class at Arkansas can parallel the big in-state class of 2008 that included Will's brother Chris, which went on to play in the 2011 Sugar Bowl and the 2012 Cotton Bowl.

"A lot of us Arkansas kids talked about it, and we just want to come together and work towards our goal," Storey said. "Coach B, from the very beginning he sat us down, all the Arkansas kids in the 2015 class, and he had a PowerPoint on the 2008 class. He was showing us how all the Arkansas kids were there, the success it equaled.

"It's always been a lot of success here, and we're going to try to keep building on it while we're all here."

Sports on 07/19/2015

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